Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Digital Dirt

Any HR professional will tell job candidates today that their online presence speaks volumes. In just a few short minutes, here is what I've found on students in one of the biz comm classes this term, open and public. None of it is embarrassing for any of us, but perhaps some of the links are old. Perhaps some need explanation. Perhaps some need to be deleted or updated. Chad, Nicole T. Andrew, Ryan, Myles, Nicole E. Jeffery. From Pinterest to Sound Cloud, Facebook to LinkedIn, YouTube to MySpace, make certain that you know what's out there. Your reputation, online and off, is what you make it. Walk the talk.

5 comments:

  1. Very good advice!

    Many employers are using social media to find out who their potential employee is off the job site.

    Is there any ways to clean up your digital dirt that may be really old that you cannot delete yourself?

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    1. I've been doing SEO and Internet marketing for several years and have had several "image repair" projects land on my desk from bad reviews, blog posts, and even whole websites devoted to damaging a company's image.

      Go into Google and do a search for something like: "Online image repair" or "Online reputation management."

      The same methods used for businesses can be applied to people as well.

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    2. Reputation is the keyword to use, yes! Google launched its own campaign in 2011 and the online business for this "industry" is growing and will likely continue to grow. It's not easy for 35-year olds today to remember what they were posting as 15-year olds just 20 years ago when they first "surfed" the Internet! Here is just one article, from 2010, on cleaning up: http://mashable.com/2010/07/06/clean-social-media-identity/

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  2. I did not even know that article was in the Katy Times. It crazy how much you can find by just googling someone's name. Glad the "dirt" you found on me was not bad.

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    Replies
    1. :-) Smiley faces are considered "gendered," but I tend to like them--in the right circumstances.

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